Thin Snowpack on Glaciers

Conditions report

Chamonix - Grand Envers / Valley Blanche

Marc Piché · Feb 10, 2017 · Mont-Blanc

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Conditions report

Location
Chamonix - Grand Envers / Valley Blanche

We had a beautiful day skiing the Grand Envers near the Valley Blanche yesterday. The snowpack is unusually thin in the alps this year and that is most obvious on the big glaciers.
Crevasses are much more open than usual and there is quite a lot of exposed ice to navigate.
Of note, the first steep pitch of the Grand Envers descent is about 75 percent pure glacier ice on a 150m 35 degree slope with tiny patches of snow in places to help connect the dots! Not entirely recommended.
Marc Piché